Tim Brown

This was a week, all right. Even by New York Mets standards, it was a week. On Friday, nearing the 4 p.m. ET trading deadline, they acquired outfielder Yoenis Cespedes from the Detroit Tigers for two prospects, pending physicals. It was the getting-there, however, that required patience, a hanky and a willingness to follow the tiny bouncing apple.

They’d been walked-off once. Their closer blew a couple saves – one, Thursday, on each side of a rain delay.

They’d discovered a raccoon in the weight room. They’d traded for a reliever (Tyler Clippard) to help set up their suddenly wobbly closer, and before that added Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson.

They’d had one of their set-up men, a former closer who’d just returned from the suspended list, return to the suspended list for doing the same thing that got him suspended in the first place, as apparently he’d fallen face-first into the same pile of PEDs.

The general manager – Sandy Alderson – was rendered “shocked” and “incredulous” by Jenrry Mejia’s casual relationship with the Joint Drug Agreement.

Shocked and incredulous were just stretching their hamstrings, however.

The Chicago Cubs agreed to acquire veteran right-hander Dan Haren from the Miami Marlins in the hours before the trading deadline, sources confirmed Friday.

Two games back in the National League wild-card race, the Cubs sought stability behind Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta, Jason Hammel and Kyle Hendricks.

The Marlins will receive shortstop Elliott Soto and right-hander Ivan Pineyro, according to Miami Herald.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported the trade first.

Haren, 34, will be a free agent after the season. The Cubs will be his fifth team since 2012, a journey that has taken him from Anaheim to Washington to Los Angeles to Miami to the North Side. This season has been his best of those, posting a 3.42 ERA and 1.093 WHIP in 21 starts.

The San Francisco Giants acquired right-handed pitcher Mike Leake from the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday night.

The Reds received in return two minor leaguers. They are 21-year-old right-hander Keury Mella, one of the club’s top prospects, and infielder Adam Duvall.

Leake, who will be a free agent at season’s end, is 9-5 with a 3.56 ERA in 21 starts for the Reds. He has a 0.60 ERA in his past four starts, including eight shutout innings in St. Louis on Tuesday night, and away from Great American Ball Park is 5-2 with a 2.98 ERA.

A half-game behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West, the Giants sought depth behind Madison Bumgarner and Chris Heston. They watched this week as the Dodgers added starters Mat Latos and Alex Wood to their rotation.

Nearly a day after the alleged condition of his hips scuttled a trade to the New York Mets, Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Carlos Gomez – along with starting pitcher Mike Fiers – was traded to the Houston Astros on Thursday.

The aggressively rebuilding Brewers and hyper-motivated Astros proved to be the match the Brewers and Mets were not. Actually, that they were for a while before they were not.

In less than a full day, Gomez, the highly athletic and in-your-face center fielder, was told he’d been traded to the Mets, told the deal fell apart because of a condition in his hips only the Mets seemed able to see, and then told he was wanted in a pennant race in Houston.

When the Astros were satisfied with Gomez’s medicals, he’d have to say good-bye to his Brewers teammates. Again.

CBS Sports was first to report the Astros had acquired the two players.

The Brewers, who would have added pitcher Zack Wheeler and infielder Wilmer Flores from the Mets, are to receive four minor leaguers from the Astros – outfielders Brett Phillips and Domingo Santana, left-hander Josh Hader and right-hander Adrian Houser. The Astros will receive an international bonus slot, as well, worth $287,500.

At the end of a long night – for the New York Mets, for young shortstop Wilmer Flores, for a world that operates by the second – Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said he had no deal for Milwaukee Brewers center fielder Carlos Gomez and there would be none.

Hours after team sources said the club had agreed to a trade that would send pitcher Zack Wheeler and Flores to the Brewers for Gomez, and that what remained was an analysis of each player's medical reports, the proposed trade apparently collapsed.

Gomez, sources said, had been told by the Brewers that he was headed to the Mets, pending the medicals. Gomez played in San Francisco on Wednesday and Flores played in New York. Wheeler is recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Brewers general manager Doug Melvin told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel he had a deal with the Mets that was scuttled by the medical reports. According to another report, the Mets backed out due to what they believed to be an issue with Gomez's condition.

Twenty-four hours before, the Los Angeles Angels were short outfielders. By Tuesday afternoon, they had traded for three: veterans Shane Victorino, David Murphy and David DeJesus.

At a deficit in left field because they’d rashly exiled Josh Hamilton to Texas, and in turmoil because their general manager, Jerry Dipoto, quit a month before Friday’s trading deadline, the Angels filled that gap with not one player, but a small handful of them.

In separate trades, they acquired Victorino from the Boston Red Sox on Monday, and on Tuesday Murphy from the Cleveland Indians and DeJesus from the Tampa Bay Rays.

As constituted, it would appear the left-handed-hitting Murphy would platoon at designated hitter with C.J. Cron, and Victorino and DeJesus would share time in left field. They also could spell Mike Trout and Kole Calhoun.

Victorino is under contract through 2015. Murphy has a $7 million option for 2016. DeJesus has a 2016 option for $5 million.

After months of lobbying, Jonathan Papelbon has muscled his way out of Philadelphia.

He was traded Tuesday to the Washington Nationals for Nick Pivetta, a 22-year-old right-hander in Double-A, according to sources. As important to Papelbon, it seems, he was traded away from the Phillies, who’ve not been competitive since the 2012 season, so from the moment Papelbon arrived via free agency.

Four wasted summers sat poorly with Papelbon, who is 34 and, with a vesting option, under contract through 2016. He repeatedly said he’d not come to Philadelphia to lose, which is precisely what they’d done.

The addition of Papelbon undoubtedly strengthens the back end of the Nationals’ bullpen, though that too comes with some complications. That Nationals have a closer. His name is Drew Storen. He has 29 saves, a 1.73 ERA and a 4.89 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

The bartender who’d scared up a couple of tacos long after the kitchen closed looked at me with some concern. A young man, he studied English at the college nearby and had a book open on the beer refrigerator. He offered a smile and then, in his second language, some advice for the weary traveler with the ice-cold Presidente.

“Don’t,” he said, “leave the hotel after dark.”

“Ever?” I asked.

“Not after dark,” he said

A fouled up flight, a long customs delay and a lost bag had me walk into the hotel near midnight. I was in Santo Domingo for the first time, the hotel across a busy roadway from the beach. The bar was on the top floor and empty except for the bartender and his English homework.

“I’m gonna need some toiletries,” I said. “Anywhere nearby?”

“Toiletries?” he tried.

“Toothbrush, toothpaste, that stuff.”

“In the morning,” he said.

“Oh.”

“Or I could go with you when I’m off.”

What I could see was hope, and a feeling for the game that went beyond mere love, and a steely intelligence that allowed folks to make life manageable in conditions that resisted.

The Blue Jays sent their own shortstop, Jose Reyes, acquired just 2 ½ years ago in a previous stab at American League East significance, to the Rockies in a deal that was expected to include minor leaguers going to Colorado. The Rockies, who packaged veteran reliever LaTroy Hawkins in the deal, could flip Reyes to a contending team in the coming hours or weeks. If they choose to keep him, they would be saving about $50 million with the Tulowitzki trade.

Fox Sports was first to report the move.

The Blue Jays were expected to seek pitching at the deadline, as their offense is the best in the major leagues and their pitching is in the bottom third, which accounts for their seven-game deficit in the American League East. Still four days remain before the trading deadline, and the Blue Jays’ focus undoubtedly will be on a starting rotation that carries a 4.38 ERA.

Tulowitzki is under contract through 2021 and due at least another $108 million, including a $2 million bonus for being traded.

Reyes is due $22 million per year through 2017, with an option for 2018 for another $22 million.

Nearing free agency, Cueto was 7-6 with a 2.62 ERA for the sagging Reds and will upgrade a Royals rotation rendered mediocre by injuries and underperformance. Cueto threw eight shutout innings Saturday in Colorado after learning he may already have been traded to the Royals, a deal that reportedly was redrawn when a player going back to the Reds failed a physical.

In return for Cueto, the Reds will receive three left-handed pitchers – 22-year-olds Brandon Finnegan and Cody Reed and 25-year-old John Lamb. Finnegan had a 2.59 ERA in 21 relief appearances for the Royals the past two seasons. Lamb was 9-1 with a 2.67 ERA in Triple-A Omaha and Reed, a second-rounder in 2013, had a 2.53 ERA in Single-A and Double-A this season.